Fylde welcome promotion favourites Rotherham Titans to the Woodlands on Saturday in a top four game which will be the Lancastrians toughest challenge to date on their home ground. It’s the meeting of National Two (North) 4th placed and unbeaten Rotherham Titans and 3rd placed Fylde (ko 15.00). Fylde will be defending a 100% home record facing a Titans squad including numerous players with long Championship (level 2) experience, some hardened veterans and a big and very powerful pack. Their mettle will be well and truly tested.
A big crowd is expected, with the visitors bringing their famous ‘Shed on Tour’ supporters to bolster the crowd. Looking on will also be Bill Sweeney, Chief Executive of the Rugby Football Union, who is the guest of World Rugby Chairman Sir Bill Beaumont and is on one of his numerous trips to National League and other clubs below the Premiership and Championship levels.
The Titans started this campaign in the eyes of many pundits as promotion favourites and haven’t disappointed in their fixtures to date. They’ve notched 13 victories and 2 draws to date, with only their visits to Sedgley Park (22-22) and Bournville (17-17) preventing a clean sweep.
Fylde and Rotherham have very different histories, traditions and exposure at the highest levels of league rugby since the professional era began in 1995. Rotherham were an unsung club in South Yorkshire who once struggled to get fixtures against more established clubs in the White Rose county, let alone due recognition of their ambitions and growing success on the national stage.
The professional era changed all that as, with generous and passionate owners, the club went on a heroic climb up the RFU leagues, often battling the dismissive attitudes of the authorities. After a huge struggle to be admitted to the Premiership, they achieved this in 2000.
Journalist Hugh Godwin wrote in The Independent in August 2000: “There will be a culture shock awaiting rugby union’s elite clubs when they arrive in Rotherham this season, especially in the clubhouse which resonates with rugby virtues from a bygone era…. Rotherham do not recognise celebrity; they are without artifice or pretension.”
Sadly, relegation followed but once again they silenced the doubters by regaining their top tier status for the 2003-4 season. That has been the summit of the club’s achievement to date and once again relegation put them back into level 2. But this was not the start of a decline in the club’s fortunes as they had a distinguished 14 seasons in this division which by then had been re-titled ‘the Championship’. Following relegation in 2017-18, life in National One was short and they suffered relegation to National Two at the end of 2019-20.
The first games between the two clubs occurred in the Courage League Division Three (now National One, level 3) in 1995-6. Roth won both, 16-19 at the Woodlands, 29-19 at Clifton Lane. Roth were promoted to level 2 at the end of that campaign. With Fylde promoted the following season, the clubs met again in the 1997-8 and 1998-9 seasons in what was then called the Allied Dunbar Premiership Division Two – now the Championship, level 2. Fylde struggled in these early days of professionalism and were relegated after these two campaigns. Hardly surprising then that high flying Roth won all four matches – 18-25 & 32-16 in 1997-8 and 43-16 & 5-34 in 1998-9. Roll on 23 years until the next meeting and Fylde lost again 28-13 at Clifton Lane on 2nd October this season. That’s a record of 0-7, so things can only get better!
The Titans were on the way up to the Premiership in this period and Fylde were going in the opposite direction. The last league game was at the Woodlands on 20th Feb 1999 which resulted in a 5-34 win for the visitors. What is notable is the Fylde squad that day (see copy of the team sheet below) and how many of these former players are either still regulars at the Woodlands or have maintained close contact with the Club and the group of players over the intervening 23 years. The squad included: current Club Chairman Matt Filipo, recently elected Chairman of Rugby Steve Rigby, Mark Evans, David Tanner, Stuart Connell, Greg Anderton, Ian Barclay, Martin Scott, Dave Whitehead, Jon Taylor, Carl Lavin, Jon Webster, Anthony Ireland, Sam Clarke and Graham Tasker. Few clubs would be able to match this!
There are connections between the Clubs. Former Titans star player, skipper and ultimately Head Coach Lee Blackett, now Head Coach at Wasps of course, was a schoolboy at King Edward VII & Queen Mary School in Lytham St Annes and was also a mini-junior at Fylde. More recently, current Fylde Joint Head Coach Chris Briers spent the 2008-9 season at centre for the Titans before moving off for a couple of seasons at Doncaster and subsequently 9 seasons as a Fylde player, skipper and backs coach before being appointed to his current role in 2021.
The Titans entered a serious re-building of their squad ahead of this season, with Head Coach Adam Byron recruiting heavily from local and not so local clubs. A particular pipeline has been from Championship heavyweights Doncaster Knights and numerous players have moved the short distance in South Yorkshire to Clifton Lane.
These include the immensely influential and powerful lock Matt Challinor who brings 11 years of full time Championship rugby at the Knights to the Club. Other players coming the same direction include veteran tighthead Colin Quigley who has spent his entire career in the Championship (ex-Roth, Moseley & London Scottish) and centre Lloyd Hayes. Lock Matt Smith has had seven seasons in the Championship initially with Cornish Pirates and subsequently six seasons with Yorkshire Carnegie.
The much travelled playmaker and goal kicker is Joe Carlisle who had six seasons at Worcester Warriors (incl in the Premiership), then Wasps, Benetton Treviso, London Welsh, Old Elthamians & Yorkshire Carnegie. Other interesting newcomers include powerful no 8 Callum Bustin who has RL experience with Barrow Raiders, London Broncos, London Skolars, Castleford Tigers, Newcastle Thunder & Bradford Bulls, and Australian fly-half or fullback Matt Minogue (ex-Queensland University and Ayrshire Bulls)
The Fylde youngsters weren’t overawed by this kind of opposition line-up in the game in October and they will be very keen to play at the top of their game on Saturday.
[Photos from the Titans v Fylde match last October are reproduced courtesy of excellent Rotherham photographer Gareth Siddons]
